Rigol DG5 4 Channel Arb Synchronization

Transcription

1 FAQ Instrument Solution FAQ Solution Title Rigol DG5 4 Channel Arb Synchronization Date:12/21/2012 Solution: This document outlines the setup to synchronize the outputs of (2) Rigol DG5xx2 series of arbitrary waveform generators. This will deliver 4 output channels that have a synchronized start point and is capable of utilizing an arb file of up to 128M points/each. Equipment List: (2) Rigol DG5000 Series Arbitrary Waveform Generators (5) SMB Plug to SMB Plug cable assemblies (ideally 6 or less in length) (1) Custom breakout 1-to-3 board or box to fan out trigger signal from controlling DG5 (4) BNC cable assemblies to connect to devices-under-test. Optional: PC running Rigol UltraSigma and Ultra Station software Optional: (2) USB cables for remote communications with DG5000s. Optional: (1) Oscilloscope with sufficient bandwidth to check signal fidelity.

2 Instrument description and configuration: DG5xx2 (Unit 1): Dual channel arb. Main controller of test synchronization. Create arb file and send to DG5 using Ultra Station. Select channel nonvolatile memory to store. Create arb file for next channel and transfer to DG5 using Ultra Station. Can store arbfiles (.RAF extension) in nonvolatile memory but this takes 6+ hours. Set Clock to Internal (using internal oscillator) DG5xx2 (Unit 1) Channel 1: Source output signal/main trigger output. Burst > N type > N = 1 Burst Source Manual Trigger Burst Slope Out Leading Use Channel 1 Burst Delay to aid in synchronization of pulse leading edges DG5xx2 (Unit 1) Channel 2: Source output signal. Burst > Ntype > N = 1 Burst Source External Burst Slope In Leading Use Channel 2 Burst Delay to aid in synchronization of pulse leading edges

3 DG5xx2 (Unit 2): Dual channel arb. Tethered secondary output. Create arb file and send to DG5 using Ultra Station. Select channel nonvolatile memory to store. Create arb file for next channel and transfer to DG5 using Ultra Station. Can store arbfiles (.RAF extension) in nonvolatile memory but this takes 6+ hours. Set Clock to External to use external connection to 10MHz from DG 5 Unit1 DG5xx2 (Unit 2) Channel 1: Source output signal. Burst > N type > N = 1 Burst Source External Burst Slope In Leading Use Channel 1 Burst Delay to aid in synchronization of pulse leading edges DG5xx2 (Unit 2) Channel 1: Source output signal. Burst > N type > N = 1 Burst Source External Burst Slope In Leading Use Channel 2 Burst Delay to aid in synchronization of pulse leading edges

4 Electrical Connections: 1. Qty 1 SMB plug to SMB plug cable assembly required. Shorter is better DG5 Unit 1, 10MHz out to DG5 Unit 2 10MHz IN 2. Qty 3 SMB plug to SMB plug cable assemblies. Shorter is better. You will also need to build a small board to break out the Channel 1 trigger to the other three channels. 1 cable - DG5 Unit 1 Trigger output to Unit 1 Channel 2 Trigger Input 1 cable - DG5 Unit 1 Trigger output to Unit 2 Channel 1 Trigger Input 1 cable - DG5 Unit 1 Trigger output to Unit 2 Channel 2 Trigger Input Figure 1: Wiring diagram

5 Figure 2: Screenshot of the four outputs after adjusting the delays. Note the sample rate in play mode is 125MSa/s. This equates to 8ns/point and leads to a +/- 8ns resolution on setting the waveform delay.

6 File Format: 128M point waveform files are large.. about 256M or more when saved as binary.raf files and over 1GB when saved as a CSV file. Here is a view of a CSV file opened using commercial software called Ultra Edit.